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Wow... Gravity shattered a number of weekend records with an eye-popping $55.8 million weekend bow. Not only is that a new record for October besting Paranormal Activity's $52m, but it's also an opening weekend record for both Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, respectively. What's most impressive about the number is the multiplier. We just don't see weekend multipliers like this anymore outside of kid-centric animation that opens outside of summer. The film earned $1.4 million on Thursday, then $17.5m on Friday, giving the film a spectacular 3.19x multiplier. The film rose a stunning 31% on Saturday, to $23m, capped by a $15m Sunday, meaning that the picture is playing to terrific word-of-mouth and varying age ranges.

This isn't just a well-marketed studio release that opened well. This is a genuine event, as it darn well should be. Gravity now ranks ninth among the top-ten live-action debuts of all-time for a completely original film (above Ted's $54m and behind Valentine's Day's $56m debut). The endgame for this one is frankly unknowable at this point, especially with two specific factors unrelated to the film's obvious buzz.

First of all, it's a pretty terrifying film, and with no real horror films set for October outside of the October 18th remake of Carrie, Gravity could well-be the de-facto horror pick for all audiences during the month.Second of all, there is the fact that this debut, along with the critical acclaim, puts this squarely up against (the also terrific) 12 Years A Slave as an Oscar frontrunner. There is also the Sandra Bullock factor. By that I mean that Bullock's films, no matter how big they open, generally have very long legs.

Even her biggest debuts, The Proposal (4.9x = $33/$163m), The Blind Side (7.5x = $34m/$255m), and The Heat (4.ox = $39m/$159m), had ridiculously leggy runs even with their much bigger debuts. So even if it plays like a lesser Bullock performer, we're still looking at a 3.5x weekend-to-total multiplier, for around $195 million domestic for the $80m space thriller. Obviously if it plays like an upper-level Bullock picture, we're looking at anything from $223m to, uh, $419m. Obviously a 7.5x multiplier is just a bit unlikely, but how many of us predicted as much for The Blind Side before Thanksgiving weekend (when its numbers went up in weekend two)?

For Bullock, this is the fifth time in seven films that she's bested her personal opening weekend record since 2007. In basically four years (since June 2009), she's gone from an actress whose best debut was the $17m opening of Premonition in 2007 to an actress with three $30m+ debuts (The Proposal - $33m, The Blind Side- $34m, and The Heat - $39m) and she now has a $55m+ in her pocket to boot. Special kudos to George Clooney, whose best opening weekend is no longer the $42m debut of Batman & Robin. But poor director Alfonso Cuaron, he'll have to settle for Gravity being his second-biggest debut behind the $93m opening of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

And special kudos to Warner Bros. for funding this one. I may have personally disapproved of their marketing strategy of just releasing brief clips as opposed to conventional trailers (I hate clips and I'm glad I didn't watch them prior to seeing the film), but everything worked this time around, right down to the simple-but-evocative poster art that explained the core conflict with only a 'Don't let go...' tagline required. It's also a clear example of the pull of real star power, as Bullock and Clooney did their job plugging the movie to general moviegoers who otherwise might not have flocked to a 3D space thriller.

Gravity earned 80% of its haul ($44m) in 3D and $11.75m of its weekend haul (21%) in IMAX screens, giving a solid boost to the company and to those who actually want 3D to succeed. This is the first time a film in IMAX has grossed 20% or more of the weekend figures for of a $50m+ debut, including $125,000 alone on the TCL Chinese IMAX theater in Hollywood. It had the fourth-biggest IMAX-Saturday ever ($4.6m), behind The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and Iron Man 3, all of which earned $160m total for their debut weekends. Aside from the obvious 3D boost, this is another huge win for IMAX and helps reestablish them as the go-to format for blockbusters. It played 54% male and 59% 35 years and older.

We'll know the long game better next weekend, but for the moment let's just celebrate a superb opening weekend for what is my favorite film of the year. Moreover, it's a rare event: A big movie that is both terrific and absolutely demands to be seen on the biggest IMAX 3D screen you can find. This is an absolute best-case scenario: A reasonably budgeted, star-driven, critically-acclaimed genre film for adults debuting to blockbuster numbers. For now, if you haven't seen it, go see it.

The other wide release was 20th Century Runner Runner. The $30 million overseas online poker thriller stars Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck, and was given a relatively light push. As somewhat expected, the poorly reviewed pot-boiler earned $7.6 million for the weekend. But it's already opened overseas and pulled in around $15m thus far. So long-story short, it's a miss in America, but it will make its money back thanks to foreign grosses and tight budgeting. As I wrote on Friday, this is both the kind of old-school pulp star-driven thriller that was in short supply for awhile but also is the kind of movie that won't lose a thing on DVD in five months.

Pulling Strings, a bilingual romantic comedy from Lionsgate and Pantelion Films opened on 387 screens and pulled in $2.5 million for its trouble. It's no No Instructions Included box office-wise, but just under $6,460 per-screen is nothing to complain about (it's Pantelion's second-biggest debut behind Instructions Not Included), and it's good that these releases may start becoming a regular thing.

In holdover news, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 had a decent $21.5 million second weekend, going from $4.6m on Friday to $10m on Saturday (+112%) and dropping 37% from weekend one for a $60m cume. That's identical to where the first Cloudy was after ten days, but with a smaller debut weekend and only a 17% drop in weekend two to $25m. Rush is not the leggy racer we hoped it would be, as it and Prisoners took it on the chin a bit thanks to the all-powerful Gravity sucking in adult moviegoers. Rush earned $4.4m (-56%) for the weekend for a $18.1m domestic cume (it's doing better overseas) while Prisoners earned $5.7m (-48%) for a still-strong $47m cume.

Baggage Claim dropped around 50% ($4.13m) for a $15.2m cume for the $9m rom-com, while Don Juan earned $4.16m (-52%) for a $16m ten-day total for the $6m romantic comedy. Insidious Chapter 2 dropped just 41% (thanks to no official horror competition)for a $3.8m weekend and has now earned a superb $74.7m domestic. Riddick has $41m in the domestic cume as it wraps its run. Despicable Me 2 is just about done too, but with $362m to show for it. We're The Millers is at $144.9m. And Enough Said expanded to 437 screens and earned $2.15m for a $5.39m cume.

That's it for this weekend. Join us next time for the debut of Captain (which sneaked last night to 75% capacity, although my press screening isn't until tomorrow) and Machete Kills (which I saw last night, preventing me from taking in that sneak of Captain Philips). Until then, go see Gravity. Well, read some of my other pieces, but also go see Gravity.